Regardless of what you call it- addiction, dependence, obsession- the effect is the same. For 6 years my daily life was driven by a need. The need was insidious, affecting almost every decision and choice I made. Either directly or indirectly, opiates were always on my mind. For those six years I believed that IT is what made me feel normal. I still think of opiates, especially heroin, as a living thing.
Models exist to help explain the causes of addiction and efficacious modes of recovery, and likewise many models have been suggested to explain Trump's hold on putative leaders and fanatical supporters. A mob boss model. A cult leader model. A host of mental health models. Whether through fear, narcissistic reward, demagogury, or some other mechanism, he succeeds in tapping into the character defects of others, generating extreme loyalty and a willingness to threaten violence.
I'm sure that even the most virulent Trump supporters don't feel like "extremists;" they believe what they are doing makes complete sense. It is necessary. They have biases, but they look around and see that bias "confirmed." They don't define normal the way you and I might.
He peddles The Big Lie and continues his lifelong contempt for democracy and the rule of law. But in spite of this, very few supporters have rejected the Big Lie; even fewer have repudiated Trump and the carnage he creates.
The attack on our Capitol created small but possibly significant fissures in support for Trump. Are there people out there struggling with Trumpism in silence, who are having doubts, who would be open to another path? It is so hard to walk away from a fix, whether its a voice that validates the way you think or a drug that makes you feel "normal."
Until you can get people to accept thay they have a problem, take ownership of their situation, and express a willingness to change, recovery can't occur. The number of people I know who failed, who died from overdosing or still "half ass" recovery, far exceeds those who succeeded. My personal recovery required many difficult but necessary needed things to fall into place. The difficult thing for me today isn't the opiates, its resisting the temptation to blame others, to let resentments and grievances contaminate my thinking.
The path from denial to acceptance to willingness is impossible without the help of others, and impossible without honesty and humility.
Much serendipity. Much support.
There is a lot of chatter about the impeachment path, and about prospects for healing and unity as we confront the chaos and crises in front of us.
One thing that binds ideas like honesty, humility, healing, and unity is TRUTH, or at the very least an agreement on facts, and that won't happen until enough people extricate themselves from Trump and the malignancies that define his existence.
It was at this point that I was going to impress you with a "12 Step Program"for recovery from Trumpism, but I've had a change of heart. The more I learn about Trump supporters, the more skeptical I become that the clearest path to "unity" is to both change the minds of Trump voters and hope for elected officials to have a sudden epipheny. If insurrection can't kindle humility, honesty, and a willingness to change, Democrats should stop hoping. It ain't happening.
If the Republican Party is going to change, it must come from within. Elected officials who are fearful of being "primaried" from Trump zealots are not acting on principal, so don't go looking for it. I think they need to be threatened by the party center too. Few people pay much attention to the center, because being more moderate means practicing more moderation, and that can be very boring in an age of visceral politics and news coverage. I"m sure its nothing personal, but cable news eschews the center for the extremes, and they always will.
Anyone who thinks Democrats and Trump supporters can "work it out" is either naive or delusional. Trump supporters are the unrepentent addicts, the ones you wave goodbye to when leaving rehab. And its not just a matter of Trump's hold wearing off. It is much easier to switch from one addiction to another than giving them up completely.
Traditional Republicans from the center-right need to put up a fight for control. The 2022 GOP primaries will tell us everything we need to know about the future of the Republican Party.
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